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May Sinclair
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==Career== From 1896 Sinclair wrote professionally to support herself and her mother, who died in 1901. An active feminist, Sinclair treated a number of themes relating to the position of women and marriage.<ref name="gc">Gary Crawford, "May Sinclair" in [[Jack Sullivan (literary scholar)|Jack Sullivan]] (ed) (1986) ''[[The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural]]'', Viking Press, 1986, {{ISBN|0-670-80902-0}} (pp. 387-8).</ref> Her works sold well in the [[United States]]. [[File:Mary Sinclair entering Kensington Women's Social & Political Union shop.jpg|thumb|Ma(r)y Sinclair entering Kensington's Women's Social & Political Union shop in 1910]] Sinclair's suffrage activities were remembered by [[Sylvia Pankhurst]]. Photographs (as "Mary Sinclair" show her around the WSPU offices in [[Kensington]]. In 1912 the [[Women Writers' Suffrage League]] published her ideas on feminism. Here she de-bunked theories put forward by Sir [[Almroth Wright]] that the suffragists were powered by their sexual frustration because of the shortage of men. She said that suffrage and the class struggle were similar aspirations and the working woman should not be in competition with the ambitions of the male working class.<ref name="Wallace2000">{{cite book|author=D. Wallace|title=Sisters and Rivals in British Women's Fiction, 1914-39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8U6GDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|date=21 June 2000|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-59880-5|pages=79β}}</ref> Around 1913, she was a founding supporter of the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London which was run by Dr [[Jessie Murray]].<ref name="Wallace2000"/> Sinclair became interested in [[psychoanalytic]] thought, and introduced matter related to [[Sigmund Freud]]'s teaching in her novels.<ref name="gc" /> In 1914, she volunteered to join the [[Munro Ambulance Corps]], a charitable organization (which included [[Lady Dorothie Feilding]], [[Elsie Knocker]] and [[Mairi Chisholm]]) that aided wounded [[Belgian people|Belgian]] soldiers on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in [[Flanders]]. She was sent home after only a few weeks at the front; she wrote about the experience in both prose and poetry. Her 1913 novel ''The Combined Maze'', the story of a London clerk and the two women he loves, was highly praised by critics, including [[George Orwell]], while [[Agatha Christie]] considered it one of the greatest English novels of its time. She wrote early criticism on [[Imagism]] and the poet [[H. D.]] (1915 in ''[[The Egoist (periodical)|The Egoist]]''); she was on social terms with H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), [[Richard Aldington]] and [[Ezra Pound]] at the time. She also reviewed in a positive light the poetry of [[T. S. Eliot]] (1917 in the ''[[Little Review]]'') and the fiction of [[Dorothy Richardson]] (1918 in ''The Egoist''). Some aspects of Sinclair's subsequent novels have been traced as influenced by modernist techniques, particularly in the autobiographical ''Mary Olivier: A Life'' (1919). She was included in the 1925 ''Contact Collection of Contemporary Writers''. Sinclair wrote two volumes of [[supernatural fiction]], ''Uncanny Stories'' (1923) and ''The Intercessor and Other Stories'' (1931).<ref name="gc" /> [[E. F. Bleiler]] called Sinclair "an underrated writer" and described ''Uncanny Stories'' as "excellent".<ref>E. F. Bleiler, ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction'', Kent State University Press, 1983</ref> [[Gary William Crawford|Gary Crawford]] has stated Sinclair's contribution to the supernatural fiction genre, "small as it is, is notable".<ref name="gc" /> [[Jacques Barzun]] included Sinclair among a list of supernatural fiction writers that "one should make a point of seeking out".<ref>Jacques Barzun, "Introduction" to ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural'', (p. xxviii).</ref> [[Brian Stableford]] has stated that Sinclair's "supernatural tales are written with uncommon delicacy and precision, and they are among the most effective examples of their fugitive kind".<ref>[[Brian Stableford]], "Sinclair, May" in [[David Pringle]], ed., ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers''. (Detroit: St. James Press, 1998) {{ISBN|1558622063}} (pp. 538-539)</ref> Andrew Smith has described ''Uncanny Stories'' as "an important contribution to the ghost story".<ref>Andrew Smith, ''Gothic Literature''. Edinburgh; Edinburgh University Press, 2007 {{ISBN|0748623701}} (p. 130)</ref> From the late 1920s, she was suffering from the early signs of [[Parkinson's disease]], and ceased writing. She settled with a companion in [[Buckinghamshire]] in 1932. She is buried at [[St John-at-Hampstead]]'s churchyard, London.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 43586-43587). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref>
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